Where You Belong
by JeVeuxReves
Summary: A series of connected ficlets that deal with fear, sex, and what it means to really love someone. Title is almost guaranteed to change.
1. Chapter 1

** Author's Note: For as long as I'm obsessed with SAO and Kirito/Asuna, I'll probably keep updating this. Plot bunnies got me, and I got curious about how many times Kirito and Asuna could _not_ get laid. So I decided to write this. Kind of story, mostly smut. I regret nothing. **

In the little cabin on Floor 22, things were heating up. Asuna was straddling Kirito, her hips pressed flush against his, fingers tangled in his hair, her tongue darting into his mouth, chasing an elusive flavor the she couldn't be sure was real.

He smelled like pine and ginger, a scent that she had fallen in love with. Here, with his breath mingling with hers and his hands on her ass, pulling her closer, she wondered if he smelled the same way in real life too. "Hey..." She whispered it, only slightly self conscious. "Do you want to... turn the ethics code off?"

He groaned against her mouth, knowing full well what she was proposing. "I've been thinking about that." He pushed gently at her shoulders until she was sitting on his hips, looking down at him. "You know how, using a sword skill, all you have to do is start the motion and let the system do the rest?"

Her face deadpanned. "I'm asking you to have sex and you're talking about sword skills? You know, you-"

He propped himself up on his elbow with blinding speed and used his free hand to hook around her neck, pulling her down for a kiss. "You interrupted me, Wife." He growled against her lips. "You talk too much."

Now she was really offended. "You take that back!" He pulled her down for another kiss. "I mean it, Kirito, I" He slotted his mouth over hers again, and she could feel his smirk, "have no problem with-" kiss "-playing orange for a few days and we're not-" kiss "-in a safe zone and-" kiss "-you're going to keep-" kiss "-doing that until I shut up-" kiss "-aren't you?"

Kiss. "Yep."

Hard to argue with that logic. She fell silent, pressing him back into the mattress, leaving his mouth to explore the flavor of his throat as his palms skimmed up her thighs. "So... about that ethics code?"

He sighed. "Right. That sword skill, you know what I'm talking about?"

"Kirito-"

"Don't pout like that Honey. I have a point here." He leaned up, nibbling along her jaw until she relented, though she did push him back down onto his back, her hands resting on his shoulders.

"Yes, I know what you're talking about."

"Well, what if – _God, Asuna –_" She had raked her fingernails down his chest, and his head tilted back, exposing the line of his throat. She could feel his adam's apple vibrating as he spoke, and his fingers were digging into her hips hard enough that they would have bruised real flesh. "What if sex here is the same?"

"It probably is." She admitted, sitting up again with a sigh. "Is that a problem?"

He looked positively edible like this, eyes all dark with lust, face flushed, hair sticking up in all different directions. From the look he was giving her, it was clear that he thought the same of her. Then his expression changed, and he chewed on the inside of his cheek, a habit that told her he was treading carefully. "Asuna... if we... if we do this, it will be you, me, and a _server_."

"You really know how to kill the mood, don't you?" She snapped, annoyed that he was right and even more annoyed with how much that bothered her. "What's your point, Kirito?"

He glanced away, a blush spreading across his face. "I've never... I haven't... done this before. Here _or_ in real life."

"And you think _I _have?!"

"No! _Crap_, why am I so _bad with words?!_" He ran a hand through his hair, restoring some semblance of neatness to his hairstyle. "I want it to be real! I want our first time to be _just us_, no servers, no HP bars, not with some virtual body in a fake world. Just you and me."

"The real world?" They ran a risk of dying every day. They had no guarantee they would ever _see_ the real world again. "You don't want me?" She hated how small and vulnerable her voice sounded. He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her into a kiss that didn't match his usual movements at all. His kisses were usually teasing and playful. This was desperate. His fingers curled in her hair and his mouth was hot and urgent against hers. When he finally let her go, she was dizzy.

"I want you, Asuna." He affirmed, his voice gravelly with lust. "_God_, I want you. My real body is probably hard right now too, I want you so badly. But... when we're together like that, I think we deserve for it to be the real thing, not some computer-assisted imitation."

"Kirito..."

"You're... you're not mad, are you?" He asked nervously.

She hugged him so tightly his HP began depleting. "Kirito! No, no I'm not mad. I love you."

"I love you too. Now, uh... you're killing me, Asuna. Loosen up a little?"


	2. Chapter 2

**WARNING: THE BEGINNING OF THIS CHAPTER IS DARK. POSSIBLE TRIGGERS!**

_He doesn't get up. He tries. He never stops trying, but he doesn't get up. He stays pinned by his own sword, a horrified, unwilling witness to her violation. When Sugou rips the last scrap of her skirt from her body, Kirito is shouting. Threats and obscenities and her name pour from his mouth in no particular order. Sugou grins, enjoying his impotent rage. The amusement doesn't last long, and as the game's pain absorber settles at five, Kirito screams, and then he falls silent. _

_ Now she's the one shouting, then pleading. Anything. She'll do anything, give him anything he wants, as long as he stops hurting Kirito. _

_ The deal they strike is this: Sugou will leave Kirito alone, as long as he stays still and keeps quiet, provided, of course, that Asuna satisfies him. Sugou's eyes are wild, and the last thread of his sanity is gone. She doesn't think, as he approaches her, that she will have any difficulty satisfying him. It's clear that he doesn't want her to enjoy this. He always had enjoyed her suffering. _

_ Kirito had made no sound while she negotiated with Sugou, but now he speaks, surprising her by addressing Sugou. "Please... please, don't do this."_

_ The pain absorber lowers to three because Kirito violated the agreement, and though his body spasms in pain around the sword running him through, he makes no sound. He has realized that seeing him suffering hurts her, and when his eyes lock onto hers, she knows that his silence is for her._

_ His strength amazes her, has always amazed her, and she resolves to be strong for him too. She makes no sound as Sugou lifts her legs to wrap around his waist, as he invades her body. She stays silent as he uses her, because if she screams, if she begs and cries, she will hurt Kirito. His arms shield his eyes from her view, but his shoulders are shaking, and she looks away, letting her hair fall into her eyes. When Sugou comes, he grins like a demon and the pain absorber drops to zero. _

Asuna wakes up with Kirito's screams echoing in her ears, and reaches immediately for her phone, dialing a phone number she has memorized. She's in tears as it rings, praying that he'll pick up.

"...Asuna?" His voice is thick with sleep, and she sobs in relief at the sound of his voice. "Asuna? What's wrong?"

She shakes her head, though he isn't there to see it. "Will you meet me at our house? Now?"

"Of course." She's still crying when she materializes in the virtual world, but it's so much better than real life because he's there, and she sobs into his chest, and he holds her and strokes her hair and his words are like magic when he tells her that it's okay, he's right here and he loves her. His grip never once loosens, and she feels safe here with him. She stops crying, but she's still shaking and clinging to him. His voice is filled with concern. "Asuna, what happened?"

"It was just a dream." She tells his coat. "It's nothing."

"Anything that makes you feel like this is _not_ nothing." He argues. "Tell me?"

He was there. He'll understand, right? "You didn't get up." She whispers. "You couldn't get up and S...Sugou..." She can't finish the sentence, but he squeezes her waist and buries his face in her hair and she knows that she doesn't need to explain.

"It was just a dream." He promises, keeping her safe in the circle of his arms. "I got up and I beat him. Sugou can't hurt you. I'll never let _anything_ hurt you."

She kisses him, because that's what you do after a boy makes such a brave declaration. Particularly when that boy is the love of your life. You kiss him, and then you keep kissing him, and his hands slide to your hips, then around your waist, pulling you against him, pressing you against the hard lines of a body built from lean muscle.

Kirito's touch takes the edge off her dream and she presses him backwards, until his knees hit the edge of the bed. She pushes him to sit and tilts his head back, fusing their mouths together, standing between his knees. His hands skim up her thighs, up her sides, pulling her closer, and his breath is hot in her mouth and her skin is hotter under his touch. She tries to pull his shirt off, but she had forgotten that they're in a game and an error message appears. Kirito laughs and pushes her away long enough to open his menu and unequip the shirt, leaving his chest bare. Her nails rake down his chest, and his hands slide around to her ass, pulling her against his hips and sucking the tip of her pointed ear in his mouth. She never knew virtual skin could be so sensitive, and grinds her hips down against his, a breathy moan escaping her lips. "Kirito..."

"Kazuto." He corrects, which is something he rarely does. He's panting and kissing a line down her throat. "Call me Kazuto." His fingers slide up her stomach, brushing against the underside of her breast.

"_Kazuto!_" She moans his name lewdly, and he mouths at her nipple over her shirt and bra, his hand sliding around her back to hold her against him. She tangles her fingers in his hair and uses her other hand to open her menu and remove her own shirt, and his mouth is damp through the fabric of her bra and he growls – actually _growls_ – because they never got much farther than this trapped in SAO and hadn't even approached this kind of intimacy yet in the real world, and he wants her and isn't really picky about the details right now.

"Damn the real world." He huffs, and opens his menu, scrolling through. "Where's that ethics code?"

He says the words mostly to himself, and Asuna, propped up on his lap, presses a kiss to the top of his head, breathing in that pine and ginger scent. "Wait."

He freezes, his finger over the right button, and looks up at her. "What's wrong?" She doesn't answer immediately, thinking of another day, a lifetime and an entire world ago, in an identical log house, on his lap just like this, hoping that he smelled like pine and ginger.

Kazuto smelled like leather and freshly mown grass after it rained and the particular brand of oil he used on his motorcycle, and she had found that she loved that scent even more. "I can't." She slides off his lap to sit beside him. His arm slips around her waist, and she leans into his warmth. "I don't want it to be because I want to erase the memory of a bad dream. I want it to be because I want you, and for no other reason. Not because I'm trying to forget what Sugou almost did."

His face darkens at Sugou's name, but he nods and goes through his menu to equip his shirt. "You're right." He agrees softly, his gaze far away. She knows that he's remembering being there, angry and scared and helpless to save her. He confirms it for her anyway when he hugs her, burying his face in her shoulder. She cards her fingers through his raven hair, comforting him.

"Will you stay here with me tonight?" She asks, because she really doesn't want to go home to the real world and sleep alone.

He nods, and they climb under the covers. He lays on his back, one arm wrapped around her. She rests her head on his shoulder, her hand in the center of his chest. "I've missed this." He admits softly, staring at the ceiling.

She snuggles closer. "Me too."

Their real bodies are alone in their beds, miles apart, but in this moment, they can feel each other's warmth, and tonight, it's enough.


End file.
